Facebook Get the Finger Out!

Almost every day we hear calls for Facebook and other Social Media outlets to take more responsibility for the items which are posted on their platforms. We also here of positive sounding platitudes from these mega rich companies but their actions don’t always reflect their words.

‘Louise Ella MacLean’

My experience is that things are getting worse on Facebook. Almost every day I receive a ‘friend request’ from scantily clad young women purporting to reside in the west of Scotland, usually with a nomenclature consisting of a forename, a middle name and a surname. These young women appear keen to chat with me and ask, on their timeline, that people click on a hyperlink so that we can chat, meet and more……

It’s quite clear to me that these are fake accounts and that these young women don’t live in the locations stated and that their photographs and names are fake. Their profiles follow a standard format and presumably, are being generated by someone connected to the company which is reached by clicking on the hyperlink. The photographs may also be being used in breach of copyright. Today’s friend request’ being from ‘Louise Ella MacLean’ above.

I spend my own time reporting these fake profiles to Facebook, whenever I receive a ‘friends request’ from them. However, I also advise Facebook that I am not happy with the process and that they should be doing something to identify and weed out such profiles at source. Surely it can’t be that difficult.

Whilst Facebook reviews the profiles which I report, despite the profiles being exactly the same, their responses are inconsistent.

See here:

Profile 1

You anonymously reportedfor pretending to be someone they’re not.

REPORT REVIEWED

We removed the profile you reported

We reviewed the profile you reported for pretending to be someone they’re not. Since it violated our Community Standards, we removed it. Thanks for your report. We let Mary Alden Rosado know that their profile has been removed, but not who reported it.

You anonymously reported Kathyrn Randall Santiago for pretending to be someone they’re not.

REPORT REVIEWED

We removed the profile you reported

We reviewed the profile you reported for pretending to be someone they’re not. Since it violated our Community Standards, we removed it. Thanks for your report. We let Kathyrn Randall Santiago know that their profile has been removed, but not who reported it.

Thanks for your report – you did the right thing by letting us know about this. We looked over the profile you reported, and though it doesn’t go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand that the profile or something they shared may still be offensive to you. We want to help you avoid things you don’t want to see on Facebook.

If you think we should look at something specific on this or another profile, you can report that exact content (ex: photo) instead of the entire profile.

From the list above, you also can block Esther TaShya Patton directly, or you may be able to unfriend or unfollow them. We recommend visiting the Help Center to learn more about how to control what you see in your News Feed. If you find that a person, group or Page consistently posts things you don’t want to see, you may want to limit how often you see their posts or remove them from your Facebook experience.

We know these options may not apply to every situation, so please let us know if you see something else you think we should take a look at.

How was this experience?

Not only is this inconsistency poor but a quick click and Google image search on the photograph of ‘Ester TaShya Patton, would have revealed that the photographs are of Sandra Kubicka a Polish model, who has her own profile on Facebook.

Facebook Get the Finger Out

It’s bad enough that they don’t remove such profiles automatically but even when they’ve been informed about a profile being fake they still allow it to remain. My message to Facebook is simple, get your finger out and start doing your job properly!